1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, an information providing apparatus and a method therefor, an information processing system and a providing medium. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, an information providing apparatus and a method therefor, an information processing system and a providing medium, which are simple and efficient, for extracting part of information from an information providing apparatus such as a WWW server connected by a communication network and transferring the same to other information processing apparatuses via an electronic mail.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the present expansion and enrichment of communication networks via internet and the like, it is now possible to carry out information communications such as retrieval and readout of information provided by an information providing apparatus such as a server by the use of an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer or a portable information terminal device (hereinafter referred to as PDA (Personal Digital Assistants)), or exchange of electronic mails with other information processing apparatus.
Information may be retrieved either by a conventional technique known as net surfing or by keyboard retrieval.
Net surfing is defined as a method of retrieval of necessary information saved in a WWW server while transferring from a WWW (World Wide Web) server to another WWW server connected on internet until necessary information is reached. A WWW server saves a text file (referred to as an "HTML file") described in a text-format language known as a hypertext such as the hypertext markup language (HTML). The hypertext is a language that can be correlated with images or voice by means of pointers or links. An HTML file contains as required a description of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) showing address information showing a location of pertinent information (known as a pointer) or a counter-part of linkage for linking with other HTML files.
The information processing apparatus having read the HTML file interprets the HTML file and displays the resultant information on the screen, and simultaneously, can further read out information present at an address derived from the pointer thereof, displays image and the like on the screen, or provide an output of voice from a speaker, or read out the HTML file of the counter-part in linkage shown by URL. When there is a linkage of further another HTML file in the HTML file in linkage, the information processing apparatus can further read out the other HTML file. The information such as the read-out image or the HTML files may be present in a WWW server other than the WWW server saving the HTML file read out first. Therefore, the information in each WWW server would have a structure comprising a cobweb-shaped chain, known as a dispersed structure. Because it is thus possible to continue retrieval of numerous other files starting from a single piece of information (a single file) along the WWW server, the user can reach the target information via so-called net surfing.
Keyword retrieval has an object to obtain target information, by the use of one or more keywords, by retrieving information corresponding to the keywords. In general, index information for retrieval of information by the use of keywords is saved in a single WWW server. In order to obtain target information, the user first specifies appropriate words serving as a key. The subsequent steps comprise accessing the WWW server saving the index information, starting the application for retrieval, and entering the specified keyword. The application for retrieval retrieves the information corresponding to the entered keyword and notifies the user of an overview and the location of that information. The user can obtain the target information by watching the overview, or accessing the WWW server or the like actually containing the information.
The foregoing information communication by a WWW server, either by net surfing or by keyword retrieval, is basically that a single information source provides information from a single WWW server to innumerable users by radially dispersing the same. The information provider only waits for user's retrieval of the information, and does not positively conduct information communication to the public.
An electronic mail system has, on the other hand, an important role as means of communication of information between individuals, and as compared with provision of information by means of a WWW server, has a feature that information is positively communicated. Therefore, when the information provided by the WWW server is efficiently transferred via an electronic mail, the value of providing information would become higher for the information provider of the WWW server.
In the conventional art, when information provided by a WWW server, such as a home page, is to be communicated to others, the mail sender transmits that electronic mail by inserting an overview of that information and URL showing the address where the information is present in the form of character information into the text of an electronic mail. The receiver of the electronic mail determines, from the overview contained in the character information, whether or not the information is necessary, and if necessary, can obtain the whole figure of that information by accessing the information provider of the WWW server on the basis of the inserted URL information.
In the application software for electronic mail now popularly in use, an HTML file may also be transmitted as an attachment to the mail. Information has therefore been communicated to others by transmitting, as an attachment to an electronic mail, a home page introducing information prepared in the HTML file and provided by the WWW server.
For an information provider providing self-information to a communication network by the use of an information providing apparatus, by how many people the information is read out is an important concern. In the conventional art, an information processing apparatus accesses directly the information providing apparatus, and when the information in a home page or the like provided by the information providing apparatus was read out, the number of accesses was counted and the number of readout runs was confirmed.
By the two foregoing methods for obtaining WWW server information provided onto a network through user's retrieval, namely net surfing or keyword retrieval, it is not easy to obtain target information from among a huge amount of information at present.
With an increase of information, information saved by a single WWW server is densely entangled with many pieces of information into a cobweb shape. In order to reach the final target information from the information that the user has first obtained, it is inevitable to perform net surfing to many chained pieces of information which is not a target, thus making it difficult to retrieve the information.
In keyword retrieval, it is not practically easy to accurately express necessary information into a keyword. Even when the user specifies a keyword, the keyword must be common with the keyword valid in index information, and necessary information cannot be retrieved unless the both keywords are in agreement. Since the number of pieces of information available from keyword retrieval increases according as there are more pieces of information, it is necessary to find out target information from among the retrieved pieces of information. Even in keyword retrieval, therefore, it is difficult, or if possible, requires much time and labor, to obtain the target information from a number of pieces of information.
A conventional problem has therefore been that useful and valuable information, if provided by an information provider, has been buried in innumerable pieces of information, sometimes preventing effective utilization of information. This is a disadvantage for information providers as well as for the society.
Also in an electronic mail system capable of positively communicating information, it is troublesome for a user to enter a URL into the text of an electronic mail. Attachment of a home page itself is redundant, and it is not efficient for a mail receiver to read through the whole text of the home page.
When the information was once copied into the information processing apparatus, it has conventionally been impossible for the information provider to know the subsequent status of transfer of the copied information. More specifically, along with the recent progress of communication network, when the copied information leaves the information providing apparatus, passes from an information processing apparatus to another and transferred in the form of an electronic mail to a plurality of users, it is impossible by the conventional art to follow up the history of transfer. The information provider cannot therefore know even the number of transfers in spite of the transfer of the information provided by the provider to other users. It has therefore been difficult to determine whether or not that information has actually an informational value and whether or not that information is attracting the general attention.
The present invention was developed in view of these circumstances, and has an object to provide an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, and a providing medium of a software program, which can simply and efficiently process information provided by an information providing apparatus or the like while utilizing positive communicability of information by an electronic mail.
Another object of the invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and an information processing method, in which information provided by an information providing apparatus is transferred to users; the contents of transfer are notified to the information provider; and further, not only the number of transfers but also the sender of the transfer and even the receivers can be determined.
A further object of the invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a method therefor, and a providing medium of a software program, making it possible to extract part of the information and to transmit the thus extracted part as an electronic mail, and in addition, to provide an information providing apparatus and a method therefor permitting grasp of the status of transfer from such contents of transfer.